As one of the best Fallout games, Fallout 4 has been around since 2015 and players have been wanting Bethesda to follow up 4 with something, anything really. Fast forward to 2023 and Team FOLON has been cooking up a game-sized mod for Fallout fans to enjoy. Here’s 10 reasons why you should care about Fallout: London.
It’s Basically a Full-Sized Game
When it comes to the word ‘Mod’ for Bethesda games, most think of the kind of mod that changes a couple things, or at most, a particular chunk of the game like combat, RPG mechanics, or graphics. Where Fallout: London differs is in its scope. By all metrics (that we will get to), this mod is comparable to what the game industry would imagine a Fallout 5 would have from a size, scope, and feature standpoint.
This is especially impressive once you learn that the team behind Fallout London are comprised of anything between hobbyist modders to industry professionals.
Surprise, It Features London
In a complete departure for anything Fallout related, fans finally have a game that takes place across the pond in all its British glory. To give you an idea of the places you’ll explore in Fallout: London, here are a list of the game’s various locations and zones:
- Islington
- Camden
- Hackney
- Greenwich
- Lewisham
- Bromley
- City of London
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
- Eastminster
- Lambeth
- Tower Hamlets
- Southwark
- Croydon
- Newham
As you can see, the places you can explore encompass a lot of the real-world areas of London, just condensed. Even so, you’ll soon learn just how big all of these areas make Fallout: London the game-sized mod that it is.
No Voiced Protagonist
One of Fallout 4’s biggest complaints was the fact that the main protagonist was voiced. It was not only a departure from previous RPGs in the series but was also not very well received. Giving the main character a voice makes it harder for players to insert themselves into the dialogue with NPCs. Thankfully, Fallout: London smartly chose to keep the main character silent.
This leaves more room for more voice work to be written and voiced for more NPCs as we shall soon see.
Over 90,000 Recorded Dialogue Lines
90,000 recorded dialogue lines is an impressively large amount of voice work for a new game. So, for a mod to have this is nothing short of a labor of love for the craft of making something new and ambitious. I was always impressed with mods that had a single custom-voiced character companion that would join you on your journey. Fallout: London has more than five fully voiced companions with their own quests and general dialogue.
Considering that Fallout: London is a mod and not an officially funded project by Bethesda, it remains to be seen if this mod’s voice work will maintain that universal quality across the board.
Entirely New Factions
Considering that Fallout: London takes place quite far and removed from the United States, it doesn’t come as a shock to learn that this mod features entirely new Factions. There are 7 factions in all and each one seems distinct, which should make the mod’s 25 faction quests that much more interesting.
- Gentry: The old elite who want to restore the UK, but only rule London weakly and unfairly.
- Tommies: The loyal militia who guard London for the Gentry, but may have the power to change things.
- 5th Column: The radical followers of Eve Varney who want to burn down London and rebuild it in her image.
- Camelot: The secret rebels who fight for a democratic republic and a seat at the Round Table for all.
- Isle of Dogs Syndicate: The wealthy criminals who control Millwall and trade with scavengers but hate the Gentry’s taxes.
- Vagabonds: The vengeful gangsters who want to destroy the Isle of Dogs Syndicate and their leader Gaunt.
- Angel: The mysterious agents who may have a hidden agenda and a connection to the pre-war government.
Over 190 New Quests
One aspect of this mod’s ridiculous ambition is the sheer amount of quests Fallout: London will offer players. Let’s break down the big number of quests into the kind of quests they are. There are:
- 53 Main Quests
- 35 Side Quests
- 25 Faction Quests
- 64 Micellanious Quests
- and 16 Gang Quests
To put that into perspective, Fallout 4 had around 144 quests with around 12 main quests, 50 faction, 20 side quests, and many more miscellaneous quests. It is refreshing to see Fallout: London put so much effort and time into crafting dozens of main story quests. We’ll have to see how the mod’s main story compares to what Bethesda made.
The Size of Fallout: London’s Map is Bigger Than Fallout 4’s
In Fallout: London’s release video the developers make it known that Fallout: London features over 3,300 cells. Now, cells are used to divide the game world in chunks that the engine can manage while loading and unloading as needed. So, with that in mind, Fallout: London has several hundred more cells than Fallout 4’s base game. Fallout: London also gives you 7 new locations to utilize Fallout 4’s settlement system!
The developers went on to explain that the total size and scope of Fallout: London rivals that of Fallout 4 and Far Harbour combined. Which, for a mod, is just incredible.
Fallout: London Features Thousands of New Assets
If you thought that Fallout: London would reuse a bunch of assets from Fallout 4 then you may be mistaken. The developers of Fallout: London have seemingly poured an incredible amount of manpower into making custom assets for this enormous mod. That includes but isn’t limited to:
- 112 new weapons
- 514 clothes
- 29 races
- 64 types of foliage
- 425 different kinds of architecture
- 203 consumables
- 2056 static assets big or small
Whether or not these assets are completely unique or are simply modifications of original Fallout 4 assets, you have to admit the sheer number alone is impressive. But if you are still skeptical, then all you need to do is watch the Official Release Announcement trailer.
A Brand-New OST
The mod team at Team Folon has come together to craft an honest-to-God soundtrack of over 70 tracks. The music of Fallout: London seems to be a varied and skillful blend of musical genres and styles, that are inspired by the rich and diverse culture of Britain. The OST captures the mood and atmosphere of post-apocalyptic London.
The soundtrack’s music ranges from the ambient mystery and allure of the diverse factions and environment to the bombastic and thrilling sounds of a U.K-centric kind of combat. Even better is the over 40 new radio songs based on the period and location alongside 3 new radio stations.
Fallout London Releases April 23rd, 2024
In the release video, Team Folon announced that the mod is currently feature complete and functional but that they needed one more quarter for their team to polish and bug fix what’s already there. This launch nicely coincides with the Fallout TV show as that releases on April 12th. I know I will certainly be one of the people who gets invested in the Fallout show and follows that experience up with a brand-new game-sized mod.
Ultimately, a mod of this size represents a huge amount of work, passion, and talent that could result in one of the biggest and greatest mods ever made. While most were hoping for an Oblivion or Fallout 3 remaster, it’s wild that most will have Fallout: London to look forward to instead. We only have until April to find out if it can live up to the hype Team Folon has built for everyone.
